Orange Is In At the Port! What Comes Next?Last week voters in Vancouver, Washington, overwhelmingly elected Don Orange, who opposes the proposed Tesoro-Savage oil train terminal, to the Port of Vancouver Commission. The oil industry funded nearly 90 percent of the opposition candidate’s campaign. Orange’s victory signals the beginning of the end for the nation’s largest oil-by-rail proposal. By running a positive, grassroots campaign, Orange and his team defeated Big Oil with the help of hundreds of volunteers, Washington Conservation Voters, and local grassroots leaders.

You can read OPB’s coverage here.Orange has long argued that the oil train proposal in Vancouver will harm – not help – Vancouver’s economy and cost the city jobs. In 2016, he spoke at a rally explaining that the oil terminal would drive away local businesses with its pollution, danger, and the stigma of Vancouver becoming an “oil town.” Meanwhile, Tesoro Savage argued that “oil spills create jobs” through cleanup activities.

What comes next?
The final decision on the oil terminal will rest with both the Port of Vancouver and Washington Governor Jay Inslee. The Port of Vancouver can cancel its lease for the oil train terminal every three months. The next likely opportunity for the new lease to terminate under the new Port Commission is March 2018. Meanwhile, Washington’s Energy Facility Siting Council (EFSEC) is expected to make its recommendation to Governor Inslee this month. Once their recommendation is issued, Governor Inslee will make the final decision.

We will push hard for both the Port of Vancouver and Governor Inslee to reject the Tesoro Savage oil terminal. And we’ll need your help. We expect EFSEC to announce its final meeting to deliberate and issue a recommendation very soon. We hope to have a full room so that they understand the importance of issuing the right decision to deny Tesoro Savage.

A new report from the Stockholm Environment Institute on a controversial fracked gas-to-methanol refinery proposed in Washington state confirms McKibben’s assertion: the Kalama methanol refinery will not help us achieve a low-carbon future or meet the goals in the Paris Climate Accords. According to the report, approving the Kalama methanol refinery “would not appear to be consistent with globally agreed climate goals of keeping warming at less than 2 degrees Celsius.”

Critical public comment period to convince Governor Inslee, and state and local officials, to stop the Kalama methanol refinery and the Kalama Lateral pipeline. The refinery would use more natural gas than all other industry in Washington combined. If we stop this project, we can protect our climate and river communities from decades of fracked gas pollution.